On the move: How innovators are changing the face and the fashion of urban mobility

0:11Hello and welcome to The Entrepreneurs on Monocle Radio, the show all about inspiring people, innovative companies and fresh ideas in global business. This week on the show, we're getting on the move with two stories about innovation and smart thinking on the road. First up, how can smaller, lighter, more human-scale vehicles help reduce pressure on parking, street space and short-distance urban movement. We have to provide a solution. You're innovating, you're creating a new market. So the challenge at this stage is not competition. And we're not competing with bikes, we're not competing with cars.

0:49It's bringing a new solution to the market. And then we're heading for the Cascades to hear about the role more individually tailored that solutions can play on two wheels. Most stock bikes, you're going to have to change saddle, handlebars, possibly stem, all these different things to kind of make it yours. Our concept is that, why don't we just do all that work on the front end? So you could think of it as, go to Nordstrom's and you can buy a nice suit and then they will tailor it to you. You deserve something that fits. This is The Entrepreneurs with me, Tom Edwards.

1:37you're listening to the entrepreneurs ali kazamkhani is the founder of envo a leader in sustainable micro mobility kazamkhani's interest in the space began at just eight years old when he tried to use the motor from his dad's broken tape recorder to power his bike uphill that early experiment sparked a lifelong interest in building practical transportation solutions. Ali became a mechanical engineer and designed one of the world's earliest universal electric bicycle conversion kits, which he patented in 2002. After immigrating from Iran to Canada, he founded Envo in 2015 and continued to develop and commercialise electric bikes, cargo platforms, snowbikes, snowcarts and other LEVs.

2:23It was a pleasure to sit down with Ali and he began by telling me more about his journey. I was born and raised in Tehran, one of the most polluted cities in the world. So I got this concept of how cars are causing this chaos in like environment. I got to the point that cars and like this concept of fossil fuel burning to move from point A to point B or moving two, three tons of metal box to move like 80 kilogram, 60 kilogram person from point A to point B. This is absolutely ridiculously wrong. What is the solution? Yeah, okay, bicycles are good things. And then during my career path, I got to know about electric bicycles and solutions to make bicycles more effective.

3:09That was the point that I got very interested and attracted to discover more and spend more time and resource into identifying why people are moving like this and what is the right way of moving and it's fascinating to me that your pursuit of these ideals as you said it has a long a long tale way back when you were a kid right you were one of those tinkerers there's a story you was it your dad's right it was like a stereo or something you tried to use that so you've been you had that instinct right to create to reuse to rethink you always had that curiosity right back from as far as you can remember?

3:45As far as I remember, yeah, I remember I was like flipping my bicycle and then cranking the pedals and then the wheel was spinning in a very interesting pattern. And then I had my dad's broken tape recorder motor and I had a few batteries. Actually, my dad was working in a battery manufacturing company like in Iran. He was one of the managers. And then I had normally have good access to different sizes of batteries. And then I tried running that motor with that battery and then spinning, you know, frictional spinning the tire by some small wheels attached to the motor. And then, oh, it's spinning so fast.

4:19So if I flip back the bicycle and put it on wheel and do the same, the bicycle will go as fast. Let's try it. And it was never working because the motor didn't have enough torque. That motor didn't have enough power, but it was just pure speed spinning freewheeling the wheel in the sky. So for me to understand the differences of that spin and the spin that can actually ride a vehicle took like several years to go to university and study mechanical engineering courses. And if we bring things up to speed, you founded Envo Drive Systems in 2015, in what, a year or so, or in the first year after moving to Canada, because you couldn't find the outlet that you needed.

4:57what I find really interesting though is that its development has been very broad by which I mean there's a whole portfolio of vehicles which I'd like you to tell us more about Ali but also is that part of the problem that when we think about trying to drive a really ambitious large scale systems change people tend to be too focused and actually this breadth of portfolio because bikes you've mentioned but all sorts of adaptive other solutions cargo platforms there's snow bikes, snow carts, all these different things, marine applications. Do you need to have that breadth in order to actually affect the kind of systems change that is necessary?

5:35I don't think so. Maybe the broad size of the portfolio relies on my own personal curiosity to some extent, but there are multiple things that are happening that pushes us toward that broadness. And I can explain that later, but just stepping back and how did it start, it didn't start with a broad portfolio. It started with conversion kits for regular bicycles to convert to electric. That was the course in the sense of the business where I started to do a kind of a bootstrap business. You know, when I moved to Canada, I had enough of like entrepreneurial background and I had enough of failures in my portfolio.

6:09I sometime counted 62 failures. Startup idea failed before I moved to Canada and I had two successful ones beforehand. But then conversion kit idea was something that I found It's the right idea, right time and right size for this community because people are getting more interested and they are looking for affordable and practical solutions to ride e-bikes. At that time, like 11, 12 years ago, e-bikes were very rare and expensive. I started developing that electromechanical components to convert different types of bikes. I had that background for a few years back in Iran. And then successfully, I launched a few setups and that started to create some positive revenue and cash flow.

6:49and then using the same revenue and profit to grow the business to more like a diversified portfolio of products to what we are today. Employee number one was actually hired two years after my startup. It was a one-man show for two years and growing market, growing portfolio, growing skills and different aspects of product design to customer service and supply chain management and logistics. Now we're a team of 32-ish. We are running a wider portfolio, which are supported by a concept in mobility that I'm trying to introduce, and that is modularity. Yeah, let's talk modularity because that is fundamental.

7:31Is that one of the, I don't know, miscalculations or misunderstood aspects that some players in this space make is that they don't appreciate not just the potential value, but actually the critical importance of modularity? I expect that the market and the world will appreciate modularity way more than before in the near future. Because when you look back to the way that people are moving and the evolution of automotive and e-mobility, you can see that all are following a similar pattern. And that pattern is the pattern that Mr. Ford created in the early 1900s. And mass production of a same type vehicle, one-fit-all solution for mobility.

8:15that is what we are doing we're seeing or observing even today like even if tesla is the most innovative company though like automakers in e-mobility they are making one or two three different type of vehicle and they expect that people will be using them and it's absolutely right because you can have an suv you can do whatever you want with that suv but when it comes to right sizing you need to purposely design and make the vehicles for that particular use or it will become again a big and bulky and inefficient vehicle. So the context of right-size mobility is about addressing applications specifically and addressing niches of the market.

8:53So if you want to do that, if you're talking about the future that micromobility or right-size mobility is replacing bulky, inefficient cars or trucks, you're talking about hundreds or maybe thousands of different vehicles, each fitting one application. One is for me to take my kid to school. The other is for me to commute to work. The other is for the guy to deliver something. The other is for the fleet. I don't know Amazon to deliver. And this is where the disconnect is because which automaker, which company is interested of starting up a portfolio of hundreds of different vehicles? No one. This is not interesting at all.

9:32You wish industrial revolution taught us to start to make one vehicle massively produced thousands, hundreds of thousands in scale, millions and be a successful business and grow. But this is a very different from what the market actually need, what the planet actually need today in the scene of mobility. So what we are trying to implant in this context in Envo is bringing modularity to yet benefit from mass production of components. For example, mass customization of the battery that can power 100 different vehicles. Mass customization of a motor that can do tens of different vehicles. And then combining these elements into and configuring these elements into different type of vehicles, the way people actually need to use.

10:28So this is some sort of mass customization, but bringing modularity to broadening a portfolio product of right size mobility. That is the direction that Envo is heading at this point. It strikes me as interesting, is it more of a challenge, Ali, to develop the tech, to build the solution, or actually to convince people about the use case and the necessity of thinking and approaching the whole subject differently? Is that the much more difficult thing to do as an entrepreneur in this space? Honestly, to me, none of them are the most, the biggest challenge. The biggest challenge is building and pursuing a sustainable business, considering all the ups and downs of the market and economy and the time that you're building something innovative that no one has done before.

11:15And you need to also fight with every like economy or market crisis, something like COVID and then post-COVID and then post-post-COVID issues, wars and here and there. But talking about the two cases, I think at the earliest stages, you always, if you're doing it right, if you're addressing a pain point of a certain market, you shouldn't be worried about the customer's adoption. Because unless you really want to do something for your curiosity and not really focusing into the problem solving of a market. So I believe in the space that we are working, there are big market gaps. There are big ignored gaps, ignored markets.

11:55And if you particularly target those like markets, people are there waiting for solutions. They're looking for solutions and they come to you. You just need to provide them a wise and affordable and practical solution. And that's what we're trying to do. Yeah, definitely technical solution, like providing technical solution in the space that I'm talking, which has a lot of untested areas. You know, modularity means you need to design elements that can perform in different environments, different use cases, different configurations. And it's not a simple engineering, although the outcome will be a simple product, but it's not a simple engineering.

12:32It's a very challenging thing, but it's not the biggest challenge. Still, the biggest challenge is a sustainable business, building or navigating the business in a way that can sustain and survive. Well, I guess implicit there in those considerations is how to be competitive. Let's talk about the competition. Who are you in competition with then, Ali? Is it other innovators? Are you competing with auto manufacturers, with bike manufacturers? Are you competing with Received Wisdom and people's existing habits? Is it a regulatory concern? When you think about what is most challenging, which, if any, of those is it?

13:08It's a little, we need to adjust our lens. it's not about competition. If you want to bring a new solution, the competition is not the biggest thing. There are people out there who are using a, let me just give you an example. There is a municipal organization that is using a F-150 truck for a regular service around us and something like an inspection. And they are trying to find an alternative, a right-sized, sustainable solution because there are government mandates for them to do so, or there are mindsets around that, but they don't find that particular vehicle that can do that particular job.

13:45What if we can design that vehicle for them? Normally, it's a very costly vehicle because it's a custom design. But what if we can do it in a modular way of, okay, let me know your problem. Okay, I can mix and match these Lego blocks and make you this product. And now you have the solution in a very cost-effective way. It's just the cost of blocks, Legos, and the cost of my few hours of labor putting this together for you. When you have a solution of this nature, you're not competing with anyone. You're innovating. You're creating a new market. So the challenge at this stage is not competition.

14:18And we're not competing with bikes. We're not competing with cars. It's bringing a new solution to the market. I wonder then affordability must be critical. As you said, communicating the value proposition to that hypothetical example you just gave. How affordable do things have to get, Ali, in order for this to really take off? You mentioned you're already hitting different kinds of scale, different kinds of opportunities. But in terms of really moving the dial, is that partly an affordability consideration? Definitely. Let me give you an example. We were making electric ATVs for a while. And then the market that was reaching out to us was film studios who wanted to get our electric ATV and upfitted with camera stuff, cranes and stuff to do their filming.

15:04This was an electric ATV, all-terrain vehicle. for a different purpose, but then adopted to this. Why were they doing this? Because developing a custom camera car for them was costing them a couple of hundred thousand dollars. But then they could have bought a$10 ,000 electric ATV and upfitted with something to do the job, to get the job done, actually. It's all about affordability. We have to provide a solution. The creative or innovative solution isn't a solution. The solution should be affordable. It should be economical, viable for that particular use case, and otherwise the shift is not going to happen.

15:41Sustainability is a big force, but not if it's not economical or financially sustainable for the businesses or the users. So if you want to replace the F-150 truck with a smaller electric vehicle for us, this is not the problem because this is definitely cheaper than that truck. But if you want to convince a family to use this vehicle to commute to work, a right-sized vehicle to commute to work, we definitely need to make something that is in the level of a used small electric car. Otherwise, this will be just another startup who makes some noises, a new solution that never gets publicly adopted.

16:22Let me ask you about success, Ali. How do you calibrate success now? And maybe throw things forwards. You know, you went from, as you said, one employee to 30 plus now. Down the track, what would success look like? Is it that you're 300 employees? Do you have a revenue figure in mind? Or actually, do you try to look for these more nuanced things that have a bit more meaning? You know, real change you've seen? or, I don't know, city blocks that have been transformed by the advance of smart mobility solutions done the right way and with right size in mind. What does success look like for you now?

16:55From the legacy perspective, I would like to see Hanwell becoming the Kleenex of a new era of mobility. There is a big shift that needs to happen, and that's the right sizing mobility. There are like staggered endeavors across the globe that a big part of them has already failed into offering newer and right-sized vehicles in the space of anything between cargo bikes or velomobiles or microcars or different journeys like LSVs in North America. Many companies have done this in the past 10 years. many startups have tried to do to introduce a cool, innovative vehicle to the market. But unfortunately, the majority of them don't exist today because they didn't sustain their business models.

17:40I would see this a big success if 10 years down the road, we look back and see, yeah, this model worked and this model became a pattern. This Envo thing became a community of connected businesses who are following this approach, who are sharing a supply chain, who are sharing engineering approaches to make this happen sustainably. At this stage, the success, it may not be like 3 ,000 employees are like employed by Anvil, or it may be, but definitely tens of thousands of people got employed through this concept in different countries. Ali, let me ask you one last question. When you describe the solutions we can see, and you've talked about your mechanical engineering interest as a kid and then your qualifications, but to truly understand how these solutions can deliver you need to be part mechanical engineer part entrepreneur of course you need to be an urbanist a sociologist an economist a behavioralist an ethnographer i don't know a systems thinker you've got to do all of these things a city planner maybe it sounds like a crazy breadth of knowledge how do you ensure you're able to do that and understand all of those things.

18:55Because look, many of the priorities any one of those professional people might identify is going to be in opposition with another one. And it's in opposition then with what City Hall would say or municipal authority or regulator, far less before we get into the challenges of supply chains and all the rest of it. How on earth do you draw all those strands together? Honestly speaking, you know, to make a sustainable business, you just need to be a good salesperson. I was just reading the story of IKEA and its foundation. The guy was a good salesperson. and you have to be a salesperson. And for me, it took 10 years to understand that engineers aren't the boss, salesmen are the boss.

19:29And yeah, you're right. You need to have a multidimensional understanding of like things if you want to grow a multidimensional business. Because yeah, as you said, you need to be able to speak legislation, you need to speak business, you need to speak technicals. And you know, even when you're talking about a hypothetical solution, having the engineering background helps you to evaluate right in the time that is it technically viable or it's just a dream? So a lot of things that we are now stepping in are the ones that I, as an engineer, identify that is very technical, very practical, and it can be affordable because it's not just practicality, it should be affordability too in the construction.

20:09I can evaluate these things very quickly, but this is me and this is now. At the same time, we need to build a team that that team can do these things without you. if you want to leave a legacy behind. There's a time that you need to retire and you need to make sure that anything that you do, also your team can take over and continue. That was Ali Kazamkani, the founder of Envo. You can find out more about the business by heading to envodrive.com.

20:46You're listening to The Entrepreneurs. Now, how complicated can it be, really, to run a bicycle shop? Stock bikes, tyres, helmets, jerseys, maybe the odd bell, employ some capable mechanics who can tune up an old beater and voila! Cascade Bicycle Studio in Seattle, however, takes a more bespoke approach, where buying a bike is more akin to a trip to the tailor. Monocle's two-wheel correspondent, Gregory Scruggs, rode over on his new whip to file this.

21:21It's a snappy 10-kilometer ride through the city from my house to Cascade Bicycle Studio in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, conveniently located just off the city's Premier Cycle Superhighway. I've come in order to get my bike fitted. It's a personalized service I'd never considered, but I'm feeling every bit of my 40 years and have come to the realization that a fit is just what the doctor ordered if I'm going to enjoy my brand new gravel bike without a crick in the neck or a pain in my knee. When I arrive, the first thing I notice is that, well, there aren't that many bikes on display, a dozen at most.

21:56It's a sharp contrast from the shop where I made my recent purchase. At that retailer, bikes were stuffed to the rafters. As the Cascade Bicycle Studio staff explained while fixing me an espresso, whatever's visible on the shop floor is a work in progress, a custom bike designed and outfitted to a customer's specifications. Those projects take months to deliver. And while I haven't invested in something quite that involved, both those customers and myself start with a trip to the fitter. In a side room, I meet Joseph McKean, an expert bike fitter whose main tool of the trade is a high-tech stationary bike.

22:35But this is no mere Peloton. It's a Ferrari red number that looks like it was sculpted by an Italian futurist. So the tool we're using here is the ID Match Bike Lab from Selle Italia. It was relatively expensive. I think by the time it showed up here and we got it installed and we had to fly somebody out to help program it and teach us to do it, around$38 ,000, which is a pretty big price tag for most small businesses. But kind of our philosophy is that we are fit first. If you ever come into the studio, you can look around on the floor and all that you'll see is either current clients' projects on their way out the door or some of our personal bikes.

23:25And so it's always changing and rotating. That being said, we don't really have bikes you could kind of come in, throw your leg over, say, I want this one and walk out. So our trade-off, instead of having a bunch of inventory, we decided to invest in this. and what this allows us to do is really look at we sell this particular fitting as a service and if that then leads to a bike sale or recommendation that is treated as something separate we look at bikes most stock bikes you're going to have to change saddle you know handlebars possibly stem all these different things to kind of make it yours our concept is that why don't we just do all that work on the front end.

24:13And so a lot of the brands that we work with allow us to make those modifications without any real additional pricing. And then it lands here with all those things done. So you can think of it as go to Nordstrom's and you can buy a nice suit and then they will tailor it to you. We do that off the bat. And whether that's with a prefabbed bike from, say, Pinarello or one of our other companies that we work with, or a completely bespoke project from 7 Mosaic, Parley, 51, something along those lines. Our concept is, you know, if you're investing this much into a bike, and we start about the$7 ,500 range, that is expensive.

24:59But if you're going to spend that much, you should get something that feels good. You don't necessarily have to sacrifice, you know, We sell bikes that are twice to three times that. But I think at every price point, once you start investing in this sport and this kind of lifestyle, you deserve something that fits. In my case, I had purchased the equivalent of a ready-to-wear suit and needed some tailoring. Step on number one. McKean takes some basic measurements.

25:31Ali Kazemkhani:All right, so stand that big and tall for me. And types them into a computer. Then the ID match begins to whirr. That's the sound of the stationary bike adjusting to fit the dimensions of my off-the-shelf gravel bike. I'll spend about an hour in the saddle while McKean observes and makes micro-adjustments, sometimes down to the millimeter, to slightly raise the seat or adjust the angle of the handlebars. The goal is to find the most comfortable fit and then map those measurements back onto my own bike. Before I hop onto the fancy contraption and start pedaling, McKean explains the bike-fitting relationship is somewhere between doctor and therapist.

26:14So as we go through this, what will benefit us both the most is our communication. I can see all these numbers and I can have an idea of which direction we want to go, but I have no idea how your body feels. And so our communication is key to the success here. As I pedal away, McKean asks me about aches and pains in specific body parts. On a screen, he can watch my biomechanics in real time as the fitting room is outfitted with cameras that use 3D motion capture to analyze how I move while pedaling. Partway through, McKean begins making adjustments. It's a little bit of a funny sensation. As I'm sitting here, the seat is going up and down involuntarily, just dialing in those precise measurements there.

27:06After a few hours in the fitting room, we have a plan. I order a few new parts on McKean's recommendations that the shop will install. From there, I anticipate my own, more modest version of New Bike Day. For Cascade Bicycle Studios customers who have purchased a custom bike from the ground up, they treat the delivery as an august occasion. The bike is typically covered in a shroud and pulled off with a snap, where the cyclist meets their new best friend for the first time. Before heading out, I sit down with Doug Marshall, one of four investors in the 20-year-old business, for a reflection on the bike shop's bespoke approach in a passion-driven industry that, as of late, has seen more downs than ups.